The Third Man (1949) is a British film noir directed by Carol Reed and written by Graham Greene. Set in occupied post-war Vienna, the film follows American writer Holly Martins, who arrives in the city to meet his old friend Harry Lime, only to be told that Lime has recently been killed in a traffic accident. As Martins begins to question the circumstances of Lime’s death, he is drawn into a world of black-market crime, divided loyalties and moral compromise. Joseph Cotten stars as Martins, with Alida Valli as Anna Schmidt, Trevor Howard as Major Calloway and Orson Welles in one of his most famous roles as Harry Lime. With its tilted camera angles, shadow-heavy photography, Anton Karas’ zither score and use of ruined Vienna as a central dramatic element, The Third Man became one of the defining films of post-war European cinema.
The Third Man was filmed primarily in Vienna, where the city’s damaged streets, grand architecture and underground sewer system give the film much of its atmosphere. Harry Lime’s apartment building was filmed at Palais Pallavicini on Josefsplatz, close to the Hofburg, while the surrounding square is used for the story of Lime’s supposed accident. The Zentralfriedhof appears in the funeral scenes, giving the film one of its most memorable opening and closing images. The Prater amusement park and its Giant Ferris Wheel are used for the famous meeting between Holly Martins and Harry Lime, where the height of the wheel turns Vienna into a distant, almost abstract city beneath them. Harry Lime’s first dramatic appearance was filmed at Schreyvogelgasse, one of the film’s most iconic night-time locations, while Theater in der Josefstadt is used for scenes connected to Anna Schmidt. The climactic chase through the Vienna sewers was filmed partly in the real sewer system beneath the city, especially around Karlsplatz, with additional material recreated in British studios. The combination of real Viennese streets, bomb-damaged urban spaces, grand imperial architecture and claustrophobic underground passages makes The Third Man one of the strongest examples of a film where the location is inseparable from the story itself.
Wiener Riesenrad
Wiener Riesenrad has appeared in The Third Man (1949), Scorpio (1973), The Living Daylights (1987), Before Sunrise (1995), Woman in Gold (2015) and Sachertorte.
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